ELLIOTT SMITH
EITHER / OR
1997 – KILL ROCK STARS
Produced By ELLIOTT SMITH, TOM ROTHROCK & ROB SCHNAPF
1. Speed Trials
2. Alameda
3. Ballad Of Big Nothing
4. Between The Bars
5. Pictures Of Me
6. No Name No. 5
7. Rose Parade
8. Punch And Judy
9. Angeles
10. Cupid’s Trick
11. 2:45 AM
12. Say Yes
When Elliott Smith was at his best, he was pretty damn incredible. When he was not, he was…tolerable. Either /Or is the third of the five solo albums he released during his lifetime, and while it contains some of his most beautiful moments, it also showcases his weaknesses more so than any of his other works. Which is what makes this album such a frustrating and, at the same time, necessary item in his discography. Smith, who played all of the instruments on the album, was pretty much unknown during most of his lifetime…it wasn’t until later that his song “Miss Misery” brought him fame on the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting. Smith was an excellent player and writer, but he was quite weak vocally. So any inconsistencies in his songs became that much more apparent because he didn’t have the vocal chops to pull off weaker material. Which is kind of what Either / Or is all about.
When this album is good, it’s phenomenal. “Angeles” is a beautiful track, and shows more than anything how capable he was. “Speed Trials” and “Ballad Of Big Nothing” rank among his best songs, and those three tracks make this worth having. And musically, it’s all good. But his songwriting does show some cracks on this album. Sometimes he goes off the deep end lyrically (as on the beautifully played but dumbfounding “Rose Parade”). And then he pulls off perfection, and you forget that his singing is whiny and thin. In all, Either / Or is nowhere near perfection. It’s highly flawed…but it’s still also quite enjoyable. This album is not on a par with its self titled predecessor, but it’s still well worth hearing. Smith died in 2003 at the age of 34 of stab wounds to the chest…whether or not they were self inflicted was never determined (Smith suffered from severe depression).
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THE WHO
THE WHO SELL OUT
1967 – TRACK
Produced By KIT LAMBERT & JON ASTLEY
1. Armenia In The Sky
2. Heinz Baked Beans
3. Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand
4. Odorono
5. Tattoo
6. Our Love Was
7. I Can See For Miles
8. I Can’t Reach You
9. Medac
10. Relax
11. Silas Stingy
12. Sunrise
13. Rael 1
14. Rael 2
15. Glittering Girl
16. Melancholia
17. Someone’s Coming
18. Jaguar
19. Early Morning Cold Taxi
20. In The Hall Of The Mountain King
21. Girl’s Eyes
22. Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand (US Mirasound Version)
23. Glow Girl
The first glance at this album can easily make someone ask themselves…what the hell is this? What this is is the third studio album from The Who. It’s their first concept album, but it’s not like Tommy or Quadrophenia. It doesn’t tell a story, and it has no characters. This is an album about growing up and loving the sounds of rock and roll radio. The songs. The excitements. The commercials, even. And because it’s so simple, and not trying so hard to make you grasp what’s going on, it’s the band’s best concept. The cover depicts members of the band hawking various products…baked beans, deodorant, acne cream and a workout plan. But what carries this, and what makes it one of The Who’s best albums, is the quality of the music. And the way the record just flows so flawlessly. The Who Sell Out is a strange, yet almost perfect, document of what it was like growing up and dreaming of the world the songs on the radio had to offer.
The advertisements work strangely well. As for the songs…there’s only one hit here. “I Can See For Miles” is all the proof you would ever need to show that this is one of the greatest bands on earth, and that Keith Moon was the greatest rock drummer of all time. Ever. The other songs are very good…not great, but as a group, they fit together perfectly. This band was so much more than “My Generation” and Tommy and “Baba O’Reilly”. And this album proves just that. This is the 1995 reissue, which features ten bonus tracks…a bit much, if you ask me. But you get the original 13, which includes the strange and wonderful commercial breaks, and of course, “I Can See For Miles”. This is the better of the three Who concept albums, simply because of its simplicity, and because it’s concept isn’t about drama. It’s just about rock and roll. Who would ever need anything more than that?
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GALAXIE 500
ON FIRE
1989 – ROUGH TRADE
Produced By MARK KRAMER
1. Blue Thunder
2. Tell Me
3. Snowstorm
4. Strange
5. When Will You Come Home
6. Decomposing Trees
7. Another Day
8. Leave The Planet
9. Plastic Bird
10. Isn’t It A Pity
11. Victory Garden
12. Ceremony
13. Cold Night
In a three year span, Galaxie 500 released three albums that pretty much defined the mopey sound of dream pop. Their biggest song was “Tugboat” from their debut, but their best album was the second one, On Fire. The band was led by singer and guitarist Dean Wareham, whose voice was deemed the reason for the band’s ultimate lack of commercial success…it’s pretty thin and unremarkable. But outside of that, this was a pretty damn cool band. Along with drummer Damon Kukowski and bassist Naomi Yang, Wareham forged a sound that influenced a long line of bands that came after them. Galaxie 500 wore their own influences proudly, recalling Jonathan Richman and The Velvet Underground at almost every turn. In a perfect world, they would have had a long and fruitful career. It was not to be…Wareham suddenly ended the band after just three albums.
On Fire is, in its own flawed way, one of the coolest albums of the late 1980’s. Songs like “Blue Thunder” and “Another Day” (sung by Yang) are big highlights, and the closing track is a surprising George Harrison cover. The three 1997 bonus tracks are surprisingly good as well, featuring a wonderful cover of the Joy Division classic “Ceremony”. The sound is consistent, fully guitar driven, and at times, quite lovely. While many other dream pop bands utilized syntesizers a lot, Galaxie 500 didn’t use them at all, and the results are very good. No one really knows why Wareham ended Galaxie 500, and there have never been any reunions or even rumors of one. But, for three dreamy albums in a three year span, we had Galaxie 500. Check them out…check THIS one out. They are all pretty cool, but this is really the one album to have by this band. And the bonus tracks are worth it as well.
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GREGG ALLMAN
LAID BACK
1973 – CAPRICORN
Produced By JOHNNY SANDLIN & GREGG ALLMAN
1. Midnight Rider
2. Queen Of Hearts
3. Please Call Home
4. Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing
5. These Days
6. Multi-Colored Lady
7. All My Friends
8. Will The Circle Be Unbroken
It always was, and always will be, that the solo career of Gregg Allman has been secondary to his tenure as the face of The Allman Brothers Band. At least with his first solo album, Laid Back, he had good reason for taking time off from his band mates…they were driving him crazy. The Allmans were recording Brothers And Sisters at the same time this was being made, and for Allman, the album was a healthy distraction. While his solo efforts were never bad, they were also never extraordinary, either. He had a handful of solo hits. “I’m No Angel”, “Come And Go Blues”, and, of course, his remake of the Allman’s classic from this album, “Midnight Rider”. But mostly, solo albums for Allman were a sometimes healthy distraction from the show that was always going on under the main tent. Maybe that’s why he was able to do it for as long as he did…he had a place to vent when he needed it.
Laid Back contains some interesting music, and sounds great. The version here of “Midnight Rider” is more soulful, most definitely a solo artist take on a song he had previously done with the Brothers. “These Days” is a Jackson Browne cover…not what you may expect from this guy. The rest of what’s here is fine…it’s just not very memorable. Which will work to describe all of his solo works. Laid Back is his first, and arguably his best solo disc, but they are all interchangeable, and all of them have the same level of consistency. Unfortunately, they all also do not have many tracks that will stick in your head. That’s okay. You can always fall back on Idlewild South or Eat A Peach or Brothers And Sisters or Fillmore East to get the really great stuff. Gregg left us in 2017, but he left us with an awful lot of fine music and some great memories. Forever grateful!
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ISAO TOMITA
SNOWFLAKES ARE DANCING
1974 – RCA RED SEAL
Produced By PLASMA MUSIC
1. Snowflakes Are Dancing
2. Reverie
3. Gardens In The Rain
4. Clair De Lune
5. Arabesque No. 1
6. The Engulfed Cathedral
7. Passepied
8. The Girl With The Flaxen Hair
9. Golliwog’s Cakewalk
10. Footprints In The Snow
Isao Tomita is not a household name by any means. But his importance in the development and history of electronic music cannot be overstated. This Japanese musician released Snowflakes Are Dancing in 1974, and it has remained a huge album in the world of ambient, classical and electronic music ever since. The album consists of arrangements of music written by the great French composer Claud Debussy, who died in 1918. The album is played by Tomita (later in his career he was better known by his last name only) on mellotron and moog synthesizer. And the results are stunning. The first impression of this album is that it could have been recorded, more likely, in 2014 rather that 1974. This was, at the time, the future of music. And because of the timelessness of the material, it doesn’t sound dated at all. On the contrary…Snowflakes Are Dancing sounds still, more than four decades later, like music from the future.
Aside from the fact that this album helped to usher in a world of popular music played on synthesizers, Tomita also proves that classical music fits within the world of electronic instrumentation. But the real beauty of this album lies in the reality that the music here…Debussy’s compositions…retain their original beauty instead of becoming mechanical in an electronic twentieth century world. And that credit goes strictly to Tomita, who understands that while the technology is there to advance the ability to replicate the sounds of this music, he also has the responsibility of capturing the essence and emotion of what Debussy was trying to purvey. And it’s there that Tomita ultimately succeeds and wins you over. This isn’t just an electronic exercise. Snowflakes Are Dancing is a thing of beauty that goes beyond its technical victories. In other words…it’s a beautiful album, dammit. Take a listen and enjoy it.
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BOB SEGER & THE SILVER BULLET BAND
GREATEST HITS
1994 – COLUMBIA
Produced By JIMMY IOVINE, JACK RICHARDSON, BOB SEGER, PUNCH, THE MUSCLE SHOALS RYTHYM SECTION & BILL SZYMCZYK
1. Roll Me Away
2. Night Moves
3. Turn The Page
4. You’ll Accomp’ny Me
5. Hollywood Nights
6. Still The Same
7. Old Time Rock And Roll
8. We’ve Got Tonight
9. Against The Wind
10. Mainstreet
11. The Fire Inside
12. Like A Rock
13. C’est La Vie
14. In Your Time
The slow and heroic rise to stardom by Bob Seger should be taught in schools as a lesson in keep on trying and you can do anything. Bob Seger released his first single in the Detroit area in 1961 while still in high school fronting a band called The Decibels. He battled his way upward through the local music scene and finally put out his first album in 1969. After 8 albums that made him a superstar in Michigan (and nowhere else), Capitol Records finally took a chance and put out Live Bullet in 1976 (followed immediately by Night Moves) and gave him full distribution, and Seger became the star he had always deserved to be. It shouldn’t have taken him 16 years to do it, but, hey…perseverance. Seger was a hit, and he had so many big songs in the coming years. And so many fine albums. Seger’s career has been huge, inspirational, and loaded with great tracks and huge moments.
So, what’s wrong with Greatest Hits, his first real compilation album released almost twenty years after his big break? First of all…it’s only a single disc. Seger deserves two. And while it contains plenty of really great tracks, and the ones that made him a big star, the omissions are staggering. Out of all of his amazing output from before 1976, this includes only one track, 1973’s “Turn The Page”. No “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”, which sounded like the second coming of Mitch Ryder, or “Get Out Of Denver”, one of the great rock songs of the seventies. The album Stranger In Town is over represented, while Night Moves gets only two songs. And while his cover of Chuck Berry’s “C’est La Vie” is fine…why include a cover and another previously unreleased track on a greatest hits album that could have been a showcase for more of his truly great output from the past? There’s plenty of fine material here…but they could have really done a lot better by Bob.
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BEN E. KING
DON’T PLAY THAT SONG!
1962 – ATCO
Produced By AHMET ERTEGUN, JERRY LEIBER & MIKE STOLLER
1. Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)
2. Ecstasy
3. On The Horizon
4. Show Me The Way
5. Here Comes The Night
6. First Taste Of Love
7. Stand By Me
8. Yes
9. Young Boy Blues
10. The Hermit Of Misty Mountain
11. I Promise Love
12. Brace Yourself
Ben E. King was originally a member of the vocal group The Five Crowns. When the entire lineup of The Drifters was fired in 1958, the Crowns were hired as their replacements. King recorded only about a dozen tracks as a Drifter, some of which were hits (and most of which are forgotten, except for “Save The Last Dance For Me”). King went solo in 1960, and with his 1962 album Don’t Play That Song! came the one track that has made him immortal. King co-wrote “Stand By Me” with Lieber & Stoller, and it remains one of the greatest tracks of the original rock and roll era. The rest of King’s body of work has faded from memory, but as soon as you hear that bass intro, and King’s smooth tenor, you know exactly who he is. “Stand By Me” is, by far, King’s crowning achievement, and makes him worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the all time greats.
The rest of Don’t Play That Song! will surprise you. It contains lesser known tracks by Ahmet Ertegun, Goffin & King, Doc Pomus, and Phil Spector, and has four other songs that were minor hits for King. The title track, “First Taste Of Love”, “Ecstasy”, and “Young Boy Blues” made this, by far, King’s most successful album, and it’s well worth hearing more than 50 years later. The hits dried up for King pretty quickly after this album, although he did soldier on with some success for many years. The truth is, King was never the greatest Drifter (Clyde McPhatter was), and as a solo artist, he was never much of a household name. Except for “Stand By Me”, for which he will always be remembered and cherished. But check out Don’t Play That Song. It’s about as good a record in the pre-album era of rock as you will find…soulful, tasteful, and smooth as soul should be.
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THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION
FREAK OUT!
1966 – VERVE
Produced By TOM WILSON
1. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
2. I Ain’t Got No Heart
3. Who Are The Brain Police?
4. Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder
5. Motherly Love
6. How Could I Be Such A Fool
7. Wowie Zowie
8. You Didn’t Try To Call Me
9. Any Way The Wind Blows
10. I’m Not Satisfied
11. You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here
12. Trouble Every Day
13. Help, I’m A Rock
14. It Can’t Happen Here
15. The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet In Two Tableaux)
In 1965, an R&B band called the Soul Giants fired their lead guitarist and asked Frank Zappa to join. Zappa convinced them to play his original songs, renamed them The Mothers Of Invention, and one of the craziest and most creative careers in music was born. Freak Out! is the debut album of both Zappa and The Mothers, and while it does contain elements of the band’s R&B roots, it’s also different than any other rock album that had come before it…by about ten thousand miles. It was only the second double album of the rock era (after Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde), and was the first double debut album. There are conventional songs here, and there are experimental pieces that were like what was bubbling underneath the Los Angeles music scene in the mid sixties. Zappa was unlike anyone else. He was wildly experimental, he was maybe the most psychedelic musician of them all, and he did it all without the use of drugs. His background was built on a love of doo wop and classical music, and a fierce sense of humor.
Freak Out! Brings all of these elements together for the first time. It’s not Zappa’s finest moment…he was quite unhappy with the album and claimed that it had not been finished properly. But historically, this is where it all began, and he certainly did build off of this. There are stunning moments here, and the ones that aren’t will be perfected later on by Zappa and this band. Thanks in large part to producer Tom Wilson (who had worked with Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel), who realized early on that this wasn’t really a blues band and let the creativity flow. The album was not a hit commercially or critically. It was also quite ahead of its time, appreciated much more as the years went by. This is not one of his all time greats like We’re Only In It For The Money or Uncle Meat or Hot Rats, but it’s the block on which those monuments were built, which makes it worthwhile on its own. A classic in its own way, which is just how Zappa always did things anyway.
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RITCHIE VALENS
1959 – DEL-FI
Produced By ROBERT KEANE
1. That’s My Little Suzie
2. In A Turkish Town
3. Come On, Let’s Go
4. Donna
5. Boney-Moronie
6. Ooh, My Head
7. La Bamba
8. Bluebirds Over The Mountain
9. Hi-Tone
10. Framed
11. We Belong Together
12. Dooby-Dooby-Wah
How short was the career of Ritchie Valens? From the time he was discovered playing a matinee show in a movie theater up to his sudden death in 1959, his career spanned a total of eight months. When he died, he was just 17 years old. So, how did this kid who was still of high school age, and who never released an album during his lifetime, become such an enduring figure over the last almost 60 years? Part of it was that he had been part of the first real rock and roll tragedy. Valens died in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. Part of it was how young he was. And the other part of it was his music. He was, at 17, the one who brought “La Bamba” to the masses, paving the way for a world of Mexican rock and roll (a bigger world than you might think). But he was more than just that song. “Donna” was a song he wrote for his high school sweetheart. And “Come On, Let’s Go” was a surprisingly strong hit as well.
The album Ritchie Valens was released a month after his death. And it’s the only album by him that’s really necessary. There are a lot of compilations and tracks and scraps swept off of the editing floor out there…this is all you need. Valens wrote half of the songs here, and “La Bamba” is his own arrangement. The album (only 25 minutes long) shows that Valens was not great, but that he was developing, was very talented, and that there was a definite future for him. Unfortunately, this is about all of what exists of his recorded legacy that’s worth hearing. But he is important, because of this music (which influenced a very large number of later musicians). Many of the many compilation albums out there are inferior and contain some cringeworthy tracks. This album is a small, but important part of the evolution of early rock and roll. Was Valens an innovator and a major figure? In many ways, no…not yet. Where was he headed? We’ll never know.
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KENDRICK LAMAR
TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY
2015 – TOP DAWG / AFTERMATH / INTERSCOPE
Produced By BOI-1DA, FLIPPA, FLYING LOTUS, KNXWLEDGE, KOZ, LARRANCE DOPSON, LOVEDRAGON, PHARRELL WILLIAMS, RAHKI, SOUNWAVE, TAE BEAST, TAZ ARNOLD, TERRACE MARTIN, THE ANTYDOTE, THUNDERCAT, TOMMY BLACK & WHOAREI
1. Wesley’s Theory (Feat. George Clinton & Thundercat)
2. For Free? (Interlude)
3. King Kunta
4. Institutionalized (Feat. Bilal, Anna Wise & Snoop Dogg)
5. These Walls (Feat. Bilal, Anna Wise & Thundercat)
6. U
7. Alright
8. For Sale? (Interlude)
9. Momma
10. Hood Politics
11. How Much A Dollar Cost (Feat. James Fauntleroy & Ronald Isley)
12. Complexion (A Zulu Love) (Feat. Rapsody)
13. The Blacker The Berry
14. You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)
15. I
16. Mortal Man
If you have no faith in hip hop, then you simply have not heard To Pimp A Butterfly. Kendrick Lamar’s third album is probably not only the best album of 2015, it’s a straight out masterpiece. This is not just a rap album. It features elements of jazz, funk, r&b, and soul. It’s avant-garde. It’s experimental. It flows like a mixtape, and it’s important. Not only is it musically captivating from start to finish, it’s also emotionally and culturally and politically viable. Lamar had already proven himself to be an up and coming star before this, but here, he transcends all of what was expected of him. He recalls here the power of racially fueled subjects that Public Enemy burned through in the 90’s. He asks important questions about race, crime and life, and he does it with the touch of a musical genius. To Pimp A Butterfly is simply masterful, and should be listened to with an open mind by all.
“Wesley’s Theory” is about actor Wesley Snipes and his having been jailed for tax evasion. “King Kunta” deals with negative African American stereotypes. “U” is Lamar dealing with depression. There are so many different subjects, and so many different sounds…and somehow, it all fits together perfectly. To Pimp A Butterfly jumps out at you from every angle. It’s raw yet beautiful. It’s coarse yet intelligent. It’s shocking yet truthful. AND it was a hit. Five hit singles and 11 Grammy nominations. Wild yet accessible. I could go on and on and not run out of superlatives for this album. I’m learning to appreciate and understand and love hip hop…I adore this album, respect it greatly, and don’t want to be without it in my life. His fourth album, Damn, came out in 2017 and continued the path that Lamar set down on this album...and his fifth effort came out just this year. I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next.
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